Desi Talk - page 10

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February 10, 2017
CITY VIEWS
– that’s all you need to know
By a StaffWriter
A
fter five sold out shows with
his NewYork City debut in
2015, actor and comedian
Vir Das will return at Carolines on
Broadway in NewYork City. Das
will perform at the famed comedy
venue from Friday, March 10 to
Sunday, March 12.
Das’ U.S. debut show
“Unbelivablish” was a success in
over 17 cities in India and has
toured in Dubai and Singapore.
With over 35,000 tickets sold, it was
billed as the largest domestic come-
dy show tour by an Indian comedi-
an, a press release issued by Das
said.
As a English speaking comedian
in India, Das is taking his point-of-
view worldwide and is quickly
becoming a global phenomenon with his
unique and original perspective. Das has
cemented himself as one of India’s top
stand-ups, actors, writers, musicians, and
festival producers. He has acted in
Bollywood films like “BadMaash
Company”, “Delhi Belly”, and “Revolver
Rani”.
Through his various tours, including The
History of India and Battle of Das Sexes, he
has sold over half a million tickets as a
stand up and is winning over comedy fans
around the world. He has made record-
setting premiere appearances across the
U.S., and he recently concluded a two-
week run at London’s .Soho Theatre. Last
year, Das was featured at the Montreal Just
For Laughs comedy festival and the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Das’ performance schedule at Carolines
on Broadway, located at 1626 Broadway,
between 49th and 50th Streets:
Friday, March 10 at 7:30 p.m. and 10:00
p.m.
Saturday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m. and
10:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 12 at 7:30 p.m. and 10:00
p.m.
Tickets are $46.50 per person, plus a
two-beverage minimum and can be pur-
chased online at
-
das/. Reservations can be made by calling
the Carolines Box Office at (212) 757-4100.
Indian Comedian Vir Das To Headline
At Carolines On Broadway
By a StaffWriter
iddhartha Mukherjee, author of
pathbreaking books on the history
of medicine and late neurosur-
geon Paul Kalanithi are on the
long-list for theWellcome Book
Prize of a U.K.-based foundation.
Mukherjee’s latest book, “The Gene:
Genetics, History of Science, Medicine”,
and Kalanithi’s “When Breath Becomes
Air” , are in the non-fiction category
among 12 authors — seven non-fiction
and five fiction titles. Kalanithi’s book, a
life-affirming reflection on mortality, is the
first posthumously published title to be
recognized by the prize. The list includes
memoir, contemporary fiction, historical
fiction and popular science, which the
Wellcome Book Prize announced Jan. 30,
“showcase the breadth and depth of our
encounters with medicine.”
“The Gene” is the story of the quest to
decipher the master-code of instructions
that makes and defines humans, that gov-
erns our form, function, and fate and
determines the future of our children,
according to a description on Mukherjee’s
website.
Mukherjee earlier work, “The Emperor
of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer”,
made it to theWellcome shortlist in 2011.
Books have to be recommended by pub-
lishers and be published by a UK-based
publisher in the previous year.
The Columbia University assistant pro-
fessor of medicine and cancer physician
and researcher, won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize
for “The Emperor of All Maladies”. He also
wrote “The Laws of Medicine”. He is the
editor of Best ScienceWriting 2013. A
Rhodes scholar, he graduated from
Stanford University, University of Oxford,
and Harvard Medical School. He has pub-
lished articles in Nature, The New England
Journal of Medicine, The NewYork Times,
and Cell. He lives in NewYork with his wife
and daughters.
Kalanithi was a neurosurgeon and
writer. He held degrees in English litera-
ture, human biology, and the history and
philosophy of science and medicine from
Stanford and Cambridge universities,
before graduating fromYale School of
Medicine. He also received the American
Academy of Neurological Surgery’s highest
award for research.
At the age of 36, on the verge of com-
pleting a decade’s training as a neurosur-
geon, Kalanithi was diagnosed with inoper-
able lung cancer. One day he was a doctor
treating the dying, the next he was a
patient struggling to live.
“When Breath Becomes Air” chronicles
Kalanithi’s transformation from a medical
student asking what makes a virtuous and
meaningful life into a neurosurgeon work-
ing in the core of human identity – the
brain – and finally into a patient and a new
father, theWellcome Book Prize website
says. His reflections on doctoring and ill-
ness have been published in the NewYork
Times, Washington Post and the Paris
Review Daily. Kalanithi died in March 2015,
aged 37. He is survived by his wife, Lucy,
and their daughter, Elizabeth Acadia.
Wellcome describes itself as a global
charitable foundation, both politically and
financially independent, which supports
scientists and researchers, takes on big
problems, fuels imaginations, and sparks
debate. TheWellcome Book Prize of 30,000
pounds or approximately $66,000 is an
annual award open to new works of fiction
or non-fiction with a central theme that
engages with some aspect of medicine,
health or illness. This can cover many gen-
res of writing – including crime, romance,
popular science, sci fi and history.
The shortlist will be announced on
March 14, and the winner on April 24.
Siddhartha Mukherjee, Late Neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi
On Longlist For U.K. Prize
S
From News Dispatches
Q
ueens Library President and CEO
DennisWalcott has affirmed the
library’s support for the immigrant
community and its commitment to work
towards making them succeed. Walcott was
speaking at an event held Feb. 3 at the
Central Library in downtown Jamaica. “We
hope to show the public that the conversa-
tion about immigration policy is a conver-
sation about people’s lives, not politics,”
Daily News Analysis quotedWalcott as say-
ing.
The event, which gathered local resi-
dents, elected officials and organizations
working with immigrants, also featured a
number of workshops for immigrants,
offered by the city’s Commission on
Human Rights, the Queens Legal Services
and the Anti-Violence Project.
Each year, thousands of immigrants par-
ticipate in the library’s programs, including
English classes, citizenship services, know-
your-rights workshops, coping skills, litera-
cy classes, computer lessons and job
search assistance, the library said.
The library serves a population of 2.3
million people, at least 48 percent of whom
were born abroad, the DNA report said.
Walcott also said that the main role of
the library is to “provide the information.”
“We are here to work with them, to pro-
vide that sanctuary, that safe haven, that
information source,” he said.
According to the 2015 census data,
Asians constitute nearly 26.3 percent of
Queens’ population, the second-most pop-
ulous borough in NewYork City.
Queens Library Affirms Support
To Immigrant Community
Siddhartha Mukherjee
Paul Kalanithi
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